This book examines state efforts to shape the public memory of past atrocities in the service of nationalist politics. This political engagement with the ‘duty to remember’, and the question of historical memory and identity politics, began as an effort to confront denialism with regard to the Holocaust, but now extends well beyond that framework, and has become a contentious subject in many countries. In exploring the politics of memory laws, a topic that has been overlooked in the largely legal analyses surrounding this phenomenon, this volume traces the spread of memory laws from their origins in Western Europe to their adoption by countries around the world. The work illustrates how memory laws have become a widespread tool of governments with a nationalist, majoritarian outlook. Indeed, as this volume illustrates, in countries that move from pluralism to majoritarianism, memory laws serve as a warning – a precursor toincreasingly repressive, nationalist inclinations.

“This collection examines from a non-legal perspective how memory laws have functioned as political instruments. Edited, brought together, and extensively introduced by two pioneers in the field of Historical Dialogue, this volume casts a wide geographic and political net – from Spain, to Russia and Eastern Europe, to Israel, to Rwanda and beyond. This work not only contributes to the discussion on the politics of memory, the politics of identity, and analyzing the impediments to transitional justice, but also to understanding the dynamics of repressive regimes, even long after their demise.”